All About Motivating Players: With 50 Lakh Cash Prize for 4th Place Finish, Haryana Offers Highest Cash Prize Among States
The biggest contingent from any state for India at the Tokyo Olympics with 30 players, the biggest medal hopes and the most liberal cash reward regime for medal winners – all this has one things in common. It is Haryana, the Khel Pradesh, of the country.
Rs 6 crore for a gold medal at the Olympics, Rs 4 crore for a silver, Rs 2.5 crore for a bronze and Rs 15 lakh for every participant – Haryana offers the highest cash prize among states for a sports-person who goes to the Olympics. On Friday, the Haryana government made a departure from its liberal policy to announce that those ending at the fourth position will also get a cash reward of Rs 50 lakh, so that the nine players from Haryana in the women hockey team get that amount each after the team lost the bronze medal match against Great Britain on Friday.
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Before this, wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya who won a silver medal has been promised Rs 4 crore, Class-1 officer job, a plot of land at concessional rates and a wrestling indoor stadium will come up in his village, Nahari in Sonipat. Two players from Haryana in the men’s hockey contingent which won Bronze will get Rs 2.5 crore each, a job as a Senior Coach and land at concessional rates. On Saturday, two more Indian athletes from Haryana, Bajrang Punia and Neeraj Chopra will also be taking a shot at an Olympic medal.
At a time when sportsmen, other than cricketers, struggle to get corporate sponsors, high cash prizes from the government are a boon.
It is all about motivating players: Haryana Sports Minister
Sandeep Singh, the Haryana Sports Minister, told News18 that the high cash incentive from government acts as a motivator for players to take up sports and win laurels for the country. Singh would know this the best, being the former Indian hockey captain and considered the fastest drag-flicker of India and an Olympian himself. He joined the BJP in the last Haryana elections and won from Atrauli in Kurukshetra, to be appointed as Sports Minister.
“It is not a mean feat to win a medal at the Olympics. The policy of the government through the policy is that more youngsters join sports and give their all to it as the government will take care of them. Many of these sportspersons come from very weak financial backgrounds and the cash prize means an assurance that the sportspersons focus on winning medals and also take care of their families and support them financially,” Sandeep Singh explains.
Singh says the policy also acts as a motivation for the medal-winners to improve their medal the next time and work more on their game. “Like our players who have won a bronze should aim at winning a silver or a gold the next time and support their game after being assured of financial help. Our Men’s hockey team has scripted history by winning a medal after 41 years while the women’s team lost narrowly in bronze medal match,” Singh said.
Haryana has been a nursery of medal winners for India at the Olympics, Asian Games, CWG Games and World Championships. Prominent wrestlers like Sushil Kumar, Geeta and Babita Phogat, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik, boxer Vijender Singh and badminton player Saina Nehwal – all belong to Haryana.
Neighboring Punjab does not have as a lucrative policy like Haryana. Punjab has for example announced as Rs 1 crore reward for its eight members of the men’s hockey team which won bronze while Haryana’s players will get Rs 2.5 crore. The SGPC in Punjab meanwhile has also announced Rs one crore each for the eight Punjab players of the Men’s hockey team.
What Centre thinks
A parliamentary standing committee report tabled on Friday highlighted that private funding to individual athletes is still very low, as compared to other nations, and athletes should be trained to raise funds from private sources as well. “Efforts are underway to increase corporate investment in sports and a proposal is being prepared for preliminary meetings with industry leaders,” the central government told the committee, as per the tabled report.
The government told the committee that in order to help athletes manage their finances better, a capsule on financial management is being planned as part of the athlete development workshop. “This will cover the following aspects: The common sources of income in sport and the phases of a typical athlete’s career, solutions available to linearize erratic income patterns, need and benefits of professional financial services for athletes, bankruptcy and the ways in which athletes can avoid it,” the central government says.
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